sandee@fsu.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee) (05/30/90)
This is a call for help from the people who are putting together the RBA
bulletin board on Bitnet. Any Usenet user could help just as well.
Also, I know that there IS a way to use BITNET to post to Usenet. So my
labors in forwarding RBAs could be automated, IF only I knew how...
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Date: Wed, 30 May 90 01:33:00 MST
Reply-To: National Birding Hotline Cooperative <BIRD_RBA%ARIZVM1@AVM.CC.FSU.EDU>
Sender: National Birding Hotline Cooperative <BIRD_RBA%ARIZVM1@AVM.CC.FSU.EDU>
From: CWILLIAMSON%PIMACC.PIMA.EDU@AVM.CC.FSU.EDU
Subject: "Ash not what NBHC can do for you..."
To: Daan Sandee <sandee@VSSERV.SCRI.FSU.EDU>
Status: R
The 'Art' of RBA Tape Transcription
Tucson Az RBA is the tape that is local to me. I get a written
transcript of the Tucson RBA tape from the compiler on the day
the tape is made. Jack Holloway leaves the typed sheet at the
Audubon Office and I pick it up at lunch. Then I put it to disk
and post it right away.
The Colorado RBA is sent to me by surface mail. I get it a few
days late, type it from the written transcript, and post it. You
too could with the cooperation of the compiler, adopt a HOTLINE.
You could provide SASEs to them and have them sent to you. This
costs you just 25 cents a week. The Hotline is a day or two late,
but it gets to disk, gets out, and gets archieved in the system
for future reference.
All the other Hotlines I do I acquire directly from the phone
tapes by recording the tape over my phone and then transcribing
it from the recording. It is relatively easy to do 4 or 5 tapes a
week this way. Even so, I hope each local area takes over their
own duties. In the mean time, I hope other PROMOTERS, such as
myself, will take under their wing their own regions and prime it
to attention as I am doing with the southwestern area and Norm
Saunders is doing for parts of the east. In the effort to get
the "National Birding Hotline Cooperative" off the ground, we are
flapping faster and harder now than we can sustain for long. You
see, we'd really RATHER BE OUT BIRDING but for now, don't mind
working hard and setting the example of what can be.
My transcription equipment is relatively inexpensive.
$32.00 Tape Recorder (LXIseries - Sears)
with the following features:
1) remote switch jack (essential)
2) mic jack (essential)
3) review feature (essential)
4) monitor feature (nice but not mandatory)
5) tape-counter (nice but not mandatory)
$20.00 Archer, Telephone Recording Control (Radio Shack cat.
no. 43-236B) - allows a direct feed into recorder -
automatically starts recording when the telephone line
is "on" and stops recording when the phone is hung up.
$ 4.00 Remote Foot Switch
$ 6.00 Misc. phone jacks, particularly a Y jack
With this setup, a clear recording can be made. Once I call the
RBA and have the recording, I replace the lines from the
Telephone Recording Control with the remote foot switch and am
ready to begin transcription. The remote foot switch is a
pressure switch that only allows the recorder to play when the
switch depressed by the foot. The play button is left down and I
step through the tape, phrase by phrase, typing as I go. I can
hit review to pick up an uncertain passage but generally, the
foot switch allows my hands to remain free to type.
Transcribing this way is relatively simple - but even so, the
whole process of getting a tape, transcribing it, and then
posting it on a BBS, can take as much as an hour.
Thank you
Chuck Williamson